1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a display control apparatus and, more particularly, to the switching of a plurality of displays.
2. Related Background Art
Hitherto, a display device for inputting an image signal from a computer or the like and displaying an image regarding the image signal has been known. A control of a display in such a kind of display device is realized by using a video signal and vertical and horizontal sync signals from a host computer.
In the case where a plurality of host computers are connected to one display device and video images from those plurality of host computers are switched and displayed, inputs (displays and coordinate inputs by a key input or a mouse) of the connected host computers are switched by the user by using a switch or the like.
To switch the displays of the host computers, it is necessary to connect the host computers by an LAN, cables, or the like and to develop and activate dedicated application software for control.
According to those constructions, however, even in the case where the user has to urgently cope with information from the other hosts instead of information displayed at present, for example, so long as the user does not switch the displays, the displays are not switched and it is impossible to urgently cope with such information.
It is an object of the invention to solve the problems as mentioned above.
Another object of the invention is to enable displays to be automatically switched.
Still another object of the invention is to improve a using efficiency of the user in case of switching displays.
Under such objects, according to the invention, as one embodiment, there is provided a display control apparatus for controlling a display device, the display device selectively displaying a first image represented by first image data and a second image represented by second image data, said apparatus comprising:
switching instructing means for instructing a switching of images to be displayed by the display device;
discriminating means for discriminating whether the switching of the images displayed by the display device can be performed or not; and
control means for allowing the first image data and the second image data to be selectively outputted to the display device on the basis of the switching instruction by the switching instructing means and a discrimination result of the discriminating means.
The above and other objects and features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description and the appended claims with reference to the accompanying drawings.